Amsterdam as the Centre of World Trade

• Painting on a harpsichord lid with an Allegory of Amsterdam as the center of world trade
• Amsterdam as the Centre of World Trade

SK-A-4947

inscription: ‘Exclusam hesperia perituram Hispane putasti Me? Frustra: nam cura Dei mihi pandit ad Afros Primo iter, atque Indos, et qua patet extima China Quaque etiam priscis non cognitus Orbis in Orbe. Perge favere Deus, daque his agnoscere Christum’

This painted harpsichord lid is literally bursting with ambition. Depicted at the left is Amsterdam, personified by the City Maid. The world lies at her feet: in the distance is the African Cape of Good Hope, at the left Asia with the Indonesian archipelago, and at the right America. In the meantime, the Dutch sail en masse to these regions, conquer them, and conduct trade there. In this way the Spanish foe is thwarted, as is inscribed in Latin on the stone at the right.

Erik Spaans, 'A harpsichord lid becomes a museum piece', cat. TEFAF Maastricht, p. 24-27 met afb

• painter: Pieter Isaacsz., Amsterdam
• musical instrument maker: Ruckers, Firma, Antwerp

c. 1604 - c. 1607

olieverf op paneel

height 79.4 cm x width 165 cm x thickness 3 cm

In 1604 reisde Jan Pietersz. Sweelinck naar Antwerpen om deze stadsklavecimbel voor het stadhuis van Amsterdam te laten maken.

Purchased with the support of the Rijksmuseum Fonds

purchase 1999-06

Public domain

…; private collection, England;{Note RMA.}…; from the dealer Simon C. Dickinson, London, fl. 186,611, to the museum, with support from the Rijksmuseumfonds, 1999

Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.

• Erik Spaans, 'A harpsichord lid becomes a museum piece', cat. TEFAF Maastricht, p. 24-27 met afb
• N. de Roever, 'Drie Amsterdamse schilders', Oud Holland 3 (1885), p. 176-177
• 'Recent acquisitions at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam', The Burlington Magazine 142, nr. 1172 (Nov., 2000), p. 729-736: 732, afb. X
• Harm Stevens, 'Uitgelijnd: Klavecimbeldeksel met een allegorie op Amsterdam als centrum van de wereldhandel', Kunstkrant 2 (2001), p. 18-19 met afb
• John Koster, 'Trasposition and Tuning from Sclick ti Sweelinck', The Organ Yearbook 41 (2012), p. 59-90: 59-60, afb. 1
• Jaarverslag Rijksmuseum 1999, p. 52-53 met afb
• John Koster, 'History and construction of the harpsichord', The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord, edited by Mark Kroll, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, p. 2–30: 12
• John Koster, 'The musical uses of Ruckers harpsichords in their own time', The golden age of Flemish harpsichord making: A study of MIM's Ruckers instruments, Brussel: Musical Instruments Museum, 2017, p. 51–69: 59-60, afb. 9
• Robert E. Gerhardt, 'Rediscovered: Michiel van Musscher's 'lost' "Portrait of Nicolaas Witsen", Oud Holland 128, nr. 2/3 (2015), p. 139-146: 146
• M. M. Mochizuki, 'Deciphering the Dutch in Deshima', Boundaries and their Meanings in the History of the Netherlands, Leiden 2009, p. 63, noot 1, p. 64, afb. 1
• K. Zandvliet, 'Pieter Isaacz Allegory of Amsterdam as the centre of world trade', Annual report: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (1999), p. 52-53 met afb
• Hessel Miedema, 'The city harpsichord of Amsterdam', Sweelinck studies: Proceedings of the International Sweelinck Symposium, Utrecht, 1999, Utrecht: Stichting Muziekhistorische Uitvoeringspraktijk, 2002, p. 225-247, afb. 1, details: afb. 3, 4, 6, 8, afb. 18 (achterzijde)
• Zoe Mercer-Golden, Katharine Waldron, 'Figures in a Landscape. Flemish Panel Painting attributed to Valckenborch', The Courtauld Institute of Art, May 2017, p. 17, 21, 41-42, afb. 21, 47

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200412769